- 25
- Apr
Last weekend, I was extremely lucky to get the opportunity to accompany my friend Dennis Lee to attend the Baconfest Chicago event at the University of Illinois Chicago Forum. Dennis, as you can see from the link above, is a food blogger. While his choice in “food” is usually not so highbrow as bacon, he was able to score 2 passes to this fantastic event to cover the awesome array of pork-flavored sweet & savory samples. I simply got lucky and saw his Facebook post asking for a partner-in-crime. Winner winner, chicken dinner! A huge thank you also goes to Seth Zurer, one of the co-founders of Baconfest, who set us up with the tickets. I couldn’t be more happy to attend this event!
Firstly, I’d just like to say that Dennis is a comedic genius when it comes to reviewing odd and obscure culinary dishes. And by dishes, I mean he likes to write about consuming animal penises (penii?). After reading about his awesome coverage of this event, I HIGHLY recommend you take the rest of your day off and read the full extent of his other posts, especially the one about the bull penis. But I digress… read his Baconfest article here:
Secondly, Baconfest Chicago IS insane, as anyone who has previously attended will attest. I probably won’t go in-depth on the individual dishes like Dennis did, but the amount of sweets was stupendous! I think I had about 5 small cupcakes before I just had to stop sampling. I couldn’t do it anymore. There were also booths for specialty beer/wine/liquor distributors that were hawking some wonderful drinks, including Bourbon County Stout from Goose Island!
My experience was one of immense pleasure. While I’m sure my doc would probably have a coronary himself if he knew of my sodium intake that day, I barreled through and enjoyed the food, drink and atmosphere. My friend Amy Sue (on left in picture below) was helping with the front line coordination when we arrived, so it was great to be greeted by her, as well!
During the first [READ: VIP] hour of service, Dennis and I proceeded to taste our way through a gauntlet of appetizing pastries, cupcakes, chocolates, biscuits, waffles, bacon cigar and Three Floyd’s sausage, including some amazing molecular gastronomy! Check out the superb bacon headcheese served with smoked strawberry rhubarb & camomile gelee that BridgeHouse Tavern was serving!
All in all, the whole day at Baconfest was a huge success. And while I did walk out a tad skewed (thanks Goose Island & Templeton!), I seriously had the great time and can’t wait for next year! Cheers!
